What is the worst advice you got vs the best advice you got?

If someone says digital art is not art or not to use reference then this is not advice then
you are talking to a toxic person and you should just run away and talk to someone else.
This is my advice to everyone.

I received a lot of superb advice in my life. I try to soak it all in. There are many advices,
I think it´s clever to listen to them all, try them and see what works for you as an individual person

Definitely the worst advice I've been given was advice relating to how I depict gender. In my early online work, my female characters were frequently mistaken for male, because in the late 90s and early 00s, bishounen characters and ecchi were all the rage and barely anyone, even in LGBTQ+ circles was familiar with terms like "nonbinary", so I got told over and over and over "your girls look like boys!", "you need to make your girls more feminine!" "They need more prominent boobs and eyelashes". People were VERY concerned about this, as though a girl not being very very obviously a girl with exaggerated feminine characteristics was a horrible thing that needed resolving, even in a story where the character's sex or gender were completely irrelevant. My work from the mid 00s looks really awkward because of this attempt to make characters more superficially feminine, and I feel like it held back my anatomical drawing because in reality, male and female bodies and faces actually aren't all that different, and treating them like it's two totally different approaches to drawing anatomy is silly. It's much better to learn general anatomy more like it's a sliding scale like "okay, people with a more female pelvis it tends cause trousers to crease like this... Broader shoulders work like this... More muscle tone in this area will look like this..." etc.
In other words, learn what physical characteristics will make a character appear more masculine, and what will make them look more feminine and to have the freedom to mix and match and play around and to not have to worry about people getting on your case because they're angry about not being able to neatly assign gender to characters (and they're scared that maybe they're a bit bi, I dunno? ).

Best Advice: "Do what works for you." Basically, early on with manga stuff especially, there was this common idea that to draw "proper manga" you had to use a dip pen and a pot of ink on a piece of bristol board on a drawing board, real screentones, draw right to left and draw in a style that was as indistinguishable from Japanese creators as possible. But some of the more experienced artists on the UK scene advised a more pragmatic approach. They'd give advice like "no, draw your comic left to right if you're making it in English; it'll read better", "Use the pens that you can afford and have space for and give you the best result", "Of course you can mix manga influences with other comics influences!", "Yes, digital tones are fine, just make sure you're working with the right DPI for your print size!"
In the end, it's all about what gives you the best pipeline for keeping making pages that look decent, are easy to read and express the feeling or action you want to express, and if your way of doing that is a bit different, that's okay!

Worst Advice: Focusing on muscle when drawing anatomy. This is how most drawing anatomy classes teach it, that you start with the skeleton, then add the muscles on top to build up the form. And while I think muscle groups are useful to know, it can lead to all your people looking like body builders. You can't even see muscle on most people who aren't actively flexing. I found a tutorial one day on building up bodies by focusing on fat distribution instead of muscle, and it's helped me so much.

Best Advice: If you're making comics, cheat as much as possible. Pretty much all of my background are traced. Don't steal other artist's work, but take your own photos or use 3d models. Looks twice as good in half the time. And there's still a lot of skill in setting up the background, most of my exterior shots are like four different photos I've taken stitched together in photoshop, and then I drawn details and textures over it.

Worst (with a caveat):

"Don't start with your magnum opus. Write something small and short."

Ok ok ok. I get that the advice is about learning the ins and outs of writing AND showing to yourself that you can complete a project. And there is absolutely value in that. However, "small and short side-project" is not the only way to learn all those skills. Why the heck would you waste your time writing a 10-page comic about settings and characters you barely care about? A MUCH better version of that advice is "Look at your magnum opus. Now pick a small portion of it that would tell its own short, completed story. Maybe the main character's grandma. Or the MC as a child going on a short adventure that defines them as the MC in your magnum opus. Then tell that story, start to finish. Then you can move on to your magnum opus, but break the story up into smaller chunks, each as its own milestone, serving as a place where you can happily hang up your hat if you so desire."

I also got the load of BS that was "art isn't a real career" BUUUTTT I ended up being educated in a medicine-adjascent field which has come in QUITE HANDY when it came to diagnosing my issues and communicating with doctors who didn't really care. So in retrospect I don't mind getting that advice, because being able to read medical research papers and journals has come in very handy.

Best:

There's a number.

1. Don't talk about doing your projects, because it creates the same kind of hormonal release that actually DOING the project does, and you become satisfied with just talking about it. I do talk about my projects a bit, but I also just sometimes tell myself to shut up and work.

2. Set REALISTIC AND ACHIEVABLE goals. For years I kept chasing the "write 1000 words a day" thing even with my medical issues and pain. I could never do it and always felt like a failure. Then finally one day, I read a writer's advice who was like, no, you need to figure out what YOU can do in a day and set that as your goal, and then ALSO add a stretch goal where you really pat yourself on the back. Maybe your daily goal is 100 words. That's fine. Just do that. So I did that, and I ended up completing my manuscript in a few months because of course I wrote more than 100 words - I was happy I was reaching my goals! I apply the same thing to art. On some days, the goal is just one panel sketch. On some days, I just decide - I am going to take a break.

I agree on that 100% and it´s the same for me.
I do it because I enjoy it, the same like playing instruments.
You have to challenge yourself a little bit every week but this is
how you improve

Worst: You can't make money on webcomics.

Best: You can't make money on webcomics.

Worst advice: "You should be just doing art for fun and not making money out of it, making money out of art is such a disgrace"
-- from the people who thinks they're more superior of an artist because they're so 'passionate' that they think making money out of art is 'a disgrace towards art'
Best Advice: "If you plan to make a career out of art, be prepared to clash and defy the 'norms' --- don't mind the 'norms' just go for it, its either you start now or never at all."
- guess I'm stubborn enough to defy their 'norms' and i'm still having fun with art while I make a career out of it. Seriously, whether you make money out of it or just do it for fun depends on the person -- that's why there's art as a hobby and art as job/a career -- no one should be telling you what do you plan to do with YOUR art or what SHOULD you do to your art.
It depends on you, on how far are you willing to defy the 'norms' surrounding you if you plan to make a career out of art -- People will always have something to say no matter what you do and the decision whether to move forward to pursue it as a career will ALWAYS rely on YOU and you alone.

best advice: draw with your whole arm, not the wrist

worst advice: draw every day.

You do not have to draw every day to get gud. Actually, drawing every day may even be harmful. Take rest days. Know your limits.

Best advice: Learn traditional art.

Learning how to draw and paint traditionally can help you understand techniques in digital art and cartooning.

Worst advice: Copy other properties that you share similarities with.

Ex. If you’re art unintentionally ended up looking a bit like Steven Universe, you should be writing a story similar to SU. If you write a story about unicorns, your plots should be similar to My Little Pony.

This is awful advice yet quite common. Stop telling people this.

The best advice I got waaaaay back when is to write the story you want to write. You don’t need ‘permission’ to write characters who aren’t exactly like you (race, gender, sexuality, etc) just do your characters justice.

The worst advice I received was the opposite of the above lol. I was told I need to only write white women main characters since I’m a white woman lmao.

Worst advice: people trying to convince me not to become upset when my brother continually pried into my stuff specifically to make me angry. Which wasn't even the point of my question back then.

Best advice: just try out digital art. I did it for the colouring atleast and I made a big step last year. So I don't regret that advice.

the worst "advice" i got was - "give up" :v

the best advice i got was - "keep doing, because, why not? you are an artist"